We’ve been doing some re-thinking here on the farm.
When we first started farming, we were excited about the possibilities. We read lots of books, learned everything we could about sustainability, and plotted our course. Every day was fun and interesting.
And now, things are still fun and interesting. But there’s so much work. Lately, we’re evaluating what’s most important. Of course, we still love the farm. But we want to continue loving the farm … and each other. So we’re making hard choices.
See, my husband works a full time job.
We have four kids. The kids are homeschooled and they have interests that aren’t just farm-related.
I work part time.
It’s just hard to make it all work. We go to work to work and come home to work.
Work.
Work.
Work.
And it’s getting overwhelming.
When it’s all work, where’s the fun?
So we’re cutting back. We’re probably going to drastically reduce our flock of sheep. They just take too much time and care. The horses probably should go. Nobody really rides much anymore. We’re through buying animals for the kids. Of course, we want them to love and enjoy the animals here. But that needs to be a side benefit for my husband and me. We don’t need to buy these critters and expect the kids to love them like we do. That breeds resentment when the kids just aren’t as excited about it as we expect.
We’re thoughtfully considering our direction here on the farm. We have to face it. We only have a limited amount of time each week to pursue our farming dreams. We need to spend the time on things that we truly enjoy. Once we stop enjoying it long term, we need to be able to let it go.
So we’re looking at things and trying to think hard, “What brings us the most joy?” We need to get out of doing the next thing because that’s what we’ve done for years. We need to do it because we want to.
Here on the farm, it can’t just be about an idealistic view of how life is supposed to work. We have to love it. Once it’s not love, we have to be able to move on.
